BMW PGA Championship: Paul McGinley overcame a shaky start to build on yesterday's course record and open up a four-shot lead on the BMW PGA Championship field at Wentworth.
The Dubliner shot a 65 yesterday but Robert Karlsson looked to take control this morning. The Swede set a clubhouse target of nine-under-par and McGinley immediately faltered in his pursuit with a bogey on the first.
Birdies on the fourth and seventh were followed by another dropped shot on the par four ninth but after the turn McGinley was unstoppable.
His back nine in 32 yesterday was exquisite, but today he went one better when he eagled the last with a perfectly judged putt for a 66 and an overall score of 13-under-par, four ahead of Karlsson and England's Miles Tunnicliff.
The latter equalled McGinley's course record with a scorecard that included two bogeys.
Virtually every sentence used by McGinley afterwards contained the word "great". Even when it came to football - he supports Celtic, who were crowned Scottish champions last night.
Now a first prize of almost €750,000 is his for the taking and should he win it he could rocket up to sixth in the Ryder Cup points race.
Not bad for a player who from reaching the world's top 20 with victory in the 2005 Volvo Masters then went over a year without a top-10 finish.
"It's not like all of a sudden the hole is the size of a bucket but I am in control of what I'm doing and I love Wentworth," commented the Dubliner. "I'm more than pleased. I had a great back nine, I holed some great putts, it was great.
"Things are looking good but I've been long enough in this game to know there's a long way to go. It's a marathon and I'm only halfway through."
Grabbing the prestigious title would transform the fortunes of a man whose world ranking, currently 157th, has "fallen like a stone" since he helped Europe win three Ryder Cups in a row.
Only 38th on the Order of Merit, he could leap into the number one position on Sunday night - and even if he goes second that would earn him an invitation to the US Open in three weeks' time.
Karlsson, who finished third at both last week's Irish Open and the Italian Open the previous week, looked in ominous form early on and added a 69 to his opening 66 to set the target at nine-under par 135.
For most of the round Karlsson struggled to make any headway, but three birdies on the final three holes made up for earlier missed chances.
A 66 for Damien McGrane means he is next best of the Irish on six-under, while Graeme McDowell - who played today with McGinley - shot a 73 to drop to one-under-par.
Peter Lawrie will be around for the weekend after his second
round 72 left the Dubliner one-over for the tournament.
The same cannot be said for Gary Murphy and Darren Clarke who
both finished four over, three ahead of Rory McIlroy who struggled
to get to grips with the West Course at Wentworth and signed for a
77.
Mark Staunton finished 16 over after his second round of 80.
Lee Westwood was forced to withdraw from the €4.5million flagship event event due to sickness. The Englishman shot an opening 77 and was left with a mountain to climb to simply make the cut.
After five holes he today informed playing partners Luke Donald and defending champion Anders Hansen he was not going to continue after the fifth.
Donald, without a victory for over two years, shot a 69 to finish three under, while Justin Rose, who lost a play-off to Hansen a year ago, finished on five-over.
Collated second round scores & totals in the European Tour BMW PGA Championship, Wentworth GC, Virginia Water, Surrey, England
(Irish and GBR unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72):
131 Paul McGinley 65 66
135 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 66 69, Miles Tunnicliff 70 65
136 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 65, Oliver Wilson 70 66, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 67 69
137 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 67
138 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 68 70, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 71 67, Damien McGrane 72 66, Gary Orr 70 68, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 66
139 Paul Casey 71 68, Marc Warren 69 70, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 71, Richard Green (Aus) 70 69, Simon Wakefield 68 71
140 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 70, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 71 69
141 Steve Webster 71 70, Robert Dinwiddie 78 63, Andres Romero (Arg) 72 69, David Howell 70 71, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 69, Luke Donald 72 69, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 73 68, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 68
142 Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 70 72, Garry Houston 68 74, Soren Hansen (Den) 76 66, Alastair Forsyth 72 70, Mark Foster 72 70, Sam Little 74 68, Simon Dyson 75 67, Simon Khan 71 71
143 Graeme McDowell 70 73, James Kingston (Rsa) 72 71, Nick Dougherty 70 73, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 70, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 67 76, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 70 73, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 72 71, Paul Broadhurst 72 71, Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 71, Sam Walker 75 68, Alexander Noren (Swe) 75 68, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 72 71, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 71 72
144 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 75 69, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 72 72, Anders Hansen (Den) 75 69, Jamie Donaldson 72 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 73, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 74, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 74 70, Oliver Fisher 71 73
145 Anton Haig (Rsa) 70 75, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 76, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 69 76, Ross Fisher 72 73, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 73 72, Peter Lawrie 73 72, Johan Edfors (Swe) 71 74, Matthew Morris 71 74, Paul Lawrie 72 73, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 76 69, Ariel Canete (Arg) 74 71, Ross McGowan 73 72, Thomas Levet (Fra) 74 71
The following players missed the cut
146 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 75 71, Benn Barham 74 72, Paul Streeter 74 72, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 78 68, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 77 69, Mark Brown (USA) 75 71, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 76 70, Richard Finch 75 71, Markus Brier (Aut) 73 73
147 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 74 73, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 74 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 71 76, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 76 71, Scott Drummond 74 73, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 70 77, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 71 76, Lee Slattery 74 73, Stephen Gallacher 75 72, Andrew Oldcorn 75 72, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 73 74, Bradley Dredge 75 72
148 Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 76 72, Colin Montgomerie 73 75, Andrew Coltart 72 76, Stuart Manley 71 77, Darren Clarke 75 73, John Bickerton 76 72, David Lynn 72 76, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 74 74, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 75 73, Carl Suneson (Spa) 76 72, Ernie Els (Rsa) 75 73, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 77 71, Gary Murphy 73 75, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 76 72
149 Justin Rose 76 73, Greig Hutcheon 75 74, Phillip Archer 77 72, Pablo Martin (Spa) 74 75, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 76 73, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 74 75, Kane Webber (USA) 80 69
150 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 75 75, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 77 73, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 78 72
151 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 73 78, Rory McIlroy 74 77, Scott Strange (Aus) 73 78, Phillip Price 77 74, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 78 73
152 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 78 74, Peter Whiteford 79 73, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 80 72, David Shacklady 76 76, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 83 69, Anthony Wall 73 79, Stephen Dodd 75 77, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 76 76, Tom Whitehouse 76 76, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 76 76, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 75 77
153 David Griffiths 77 76
154 Leif Westerberg (Swe) 80 74, Peter Baker 81 73, Jon Lupton 77 77, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 79 75, Graeme Storm 79 75, Brett Rumford (Aus) 80 74, Sean Mason 78 76, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 73 81, Barry Lane 76 78
156 Anthony Tarchetti 80 76, Ian Ellis 76 80, James Kamte (Rsa) 79 77
159Zane Scotland 83 76
160 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 80 80, Mark Staunton 80 80
162 Michael Jonzon (Swe) 84 78
